


Back Again

by SpyderScully



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Season/Series 05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-29
Updated: 2014-11-29
Packaged: 2018-02-27 09:10:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2687219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpyderScully/pseuds/SpyderScully
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mulder reflects on Scully’s return to work after her bout with cancer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Back Again

Fox Mulder was sitting on the edge of his partner’s desk. His fingers tapped restlessly and noiselessly against the top of his seating platform as if they were searching for something to grab a hold of. His other hand loosely clutched a bouquet of richly-colored flowers, made slightly rumpled by his ceaseless and nervous movements.

Today was the day she was coming back to the X-Files. She had been away for months, gravely ill, near death, and then a week ago, she had miraculously recovered. And now she was coming back. Scully. Scully was coming back.

He reveled in that thought as it sent a shiver through him. For a little while he was content to ignore all the specifics and details of her miraculous cure and reject any thoughts of the parts that he might have played in her illness. For now, all that he could focus on was the anticipation of seeing her walk through that door. Willing. Able. Healthy.

If it were possible, the week he had spent waiting for her, knowing she would live and thrive was harder for him than all the months he had watched her fading away. Her doctors wanted her to stay in bed for a solid two weeks for rejuvenation, but Scully had convinced them that a week plus a weekend was more than sufficient. She was ready to get back to living and start work again, and Mulder suspected she had known how stir crazy he would become waiting for her.

She had been right. During her entire week away of rest, he had barricaded himself in the office, filing reports, diligently working on research that far exceeded the necessity of a case, rewriting file labels - hell, even cleaning out the supply closet…anything to push back having to go out into the field without her. He couldn’t bring himself to do it, so he created reasons not to.

That week was past now. It was Monday, and the waiting was over.

He glanced down at the bouquet in his hand, wondering if it was a bit too much. It had been an impulsive decision; a little “welcome back” gift. Did Scully even like flowers? He hoped so…jeez, who didn’t like flowers? His mouth twitched in a very small grimace when he realized they were wilting slightly. They probably weren’t benefiting from being tightly clasped in his hot sweaty palm.

He gingerly laid the flowers down on Scully’s desk, in front of her computer. He wiped his damp palms on the front of his thighs, glancing around and considering whether or not to make coffee when he heard a soft rap at the door. His head swiveled immediately to the sound, ignoring his brain questioning why she had decided to knock.

She was standing in the doorway, and she had never looked so beautiful to him than she did now. She was definitely looking thinner, her face was drawn and she had gotten her hair styled differently to disguise the fact that it had grown significantly finer, but she was here, standing right in front of him.

He stood all of four feet away from her, staring at her face. He could see the tentative look in her crystal eyes as she looked back at him, her expression so full of hope and expectation that it almost brought him to tears.

It was at that moment, gazing at her from across the small little office, that he realized he loved Dana Scully. As soon as the thought lit up and wavered bravely in his brain, he pushed it violently away, but the concept had been born and would only continue to consume him from now on. She was here. And he loved her.

He stepped forward hesitantly.

"Hi." He breathed, just wanting to hear her voice. She smiled, almost shyly.

"Hi." She said quietly.

"Good weekend?"

"Oh yes. Quite restful."

Her gentle little quip made him grin. Before he had a chance to really consider what he was doing, he had stepped forward, drawing out his hand to thoughtfully touch where the inner corner of her left eye met her nose. He imagined the healing tissue there now, envisioned what it was going to be like to witness those heart wrenching nose bleeds grow less and less frequent until they disappeared altogether. Mulder repressed a shiver. He thanked his lucky stars that Scully seemed to know what he was doing, because she remained where she stood before him, her only perceptible movement a slight fluttering of her eyelids as he let his finger drift down the elegant arch of her nose and follow the line of her upper lip.

He drew her into his arms for the first time since she had professed in the hallway of the hospital that her life was not over. She had been right - her life was far from over now and he honestly believed he couldn’t be happier about it.

"Mulder, I’m still a little tender." She said softly and not without affection. He chuckled self consciously, letting her go and running a nervous hand through his hair. They stood in the middle of the room facing each other, the air a little awkward but simmering with energy. He knew she was smiling at him and he suddenly found himself unable to meet her eyes.

"Are those for me?" Her voice broached softly. He glanced up, seeing her raised brows as she gazed at the bundle of flowers waiting for her on her desk.

"Yeah, they are." He smiled sheepishly as she stepped over to her computer, gathering up the bouquet in her arms. "I wanted a little something that said ‘welcome back partner…hope you don’t mind potentially getting eaten by another sewer monster in the near future’." Her eyes were dancing as she playfully grinned at him again. God, he didn’t think he had seen Scully smile so much in such a short span of time. He wished she did it more often.

"Dandelion for faithfulness, heather for solitude, chrysanthemum for friendship…" She was saying thoughtfully, her fingers gently manipulating the velvet petals as she listed them off. "If that doesn’t speak to our partnership Mulder, I don’t know what does."

You know come to think of it, he realized suddenly, he hadn’t smiled this much in such a short span of time, either.


End file.
